Tell us about your weekend ride

Went for a nice ride around Poole Harbour this weekend 65km;
This always makes me smirk after a fun little climb,

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Headed north west from Chiswick yesterday with the vague idea of visiting the rapha place at Bicester - a random conversation at the Warren Row coffee stop took us off route to Hambleden Lock and some stunning lanes though the Chilterns - reasons to be cheerful. No rapha purchases made, but a nice and not too pricey coffee.

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190 km into Welsh Wales and back on Saturday. Grim in Manchester, glorious in Wales, then grim in Manchester again.
110 km into the Goyt valley on Sunday. Glorious all day. After not doing enough riding for a while felt good to get back on the horse.

Not sure how, but I managed to explode the spacer in my seatpost binder bolt 20km into my ride today. Had a fun ride back home with the seat as low as it can go and wobbling side to side as I pedalled.

Rode to Cambridge and back to London today, channeling my inner @WornCleat (except that I won't be doing it again for the next 9 days... Hats off) I used WornCleat's route for the way out (veeery nice route, thanks!) but sketched down another return as I prefer to not backtrack when possible. All in all a very nice day out in brilliant weather, but cold!

Of course the garmin fucked up the track for 10km just before Cambridge.

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Went to Chiang Mai 'for five days' in September to train for a race and only got back on Saturday.

Incredible riding up there. Food and coffee are superb and I only encountered good vibes on the road - lots of tooting and thumbs up from smiling people on scooters. Total of 2,300.1km with 28,747m elevation.

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Gravelaide 70k ride last sunday. Was great, although the first hill nearly killed me.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1261523704

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Did a gravel ride from Adelaide to Victor harbour. Quite tough at the end, but great fun. 105km distance, 1500m climbing, 4:20hrs moving time ish. Recommended.

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150km from Kigali to the Burundi border and back, with pro youth team "Skol". 5 hours, ish, with two big climbs (20-30 minutes each).

Fast and tough, like last weekend only less painful. I'm getting my mojo back.

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Rep

cool! you based out there?

Yeah I live in Rwanda.

The riding is very good as it's 25deg every day, the surfaces are near immaculate and we're the "country of a thousand hills".

Downside is still feeling like an outsider despite being here for 3 years and speaking the language - on the road I'm still just a mzungu on a bike to be stared/yelled at. A shame as most Rwandans are nice on a 1-to-1 basis...

Have you published ur endeavours anywhere blog/insta something?

+1 to this

I seem to remember you had a big thread about your adventures over there, but can't seem to find it?

Might be a silly question, but do you know much about the cycling scene in Uganda? My mate's just moved out there and is missing riding his bike rather a lot... I think he's in/near Kampala.

pro youth team "Skol"

Is that still a larger out there?

Half litre is 'larger' than some.

Ha. Damn you phonetics.

I made a post in 2013 about a race in Kenya and sadly the photos have vanished into the depths of the interwebs, maybe I've got copies somewhere.

Also this project thread about restoring David Kinjah's old Pinarello: 1990s Pinarello Stelvio resoration

I moved to Rwanda in 2015 because it's the one country in the region that actually allows a life without faff/danger/corruption, though honestly it's "Africa Lite" and I miss the exciting chaos of Kenya. Yes, Skol is one of our main lagers, brewed here by the Heineken company. Like all Rwandan beers it's unexciting. Congo and Uganda have super tasty beers though.

I worked all of 2015 with Team Rwanda as a mechanic, and this week they are racing the Tour de Rwanda (big UCI race). My current work is leading week-long dirt road MTB expeditions for rich British tourists. They are normally so slow that I spend all week without the faintest whiff of lactic acid, so riders like the Skol youth team are great for proper training. Plus there's a nice expat crew here that I cycle with socially.

I have a few cycling pictures on my Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stickymangojuice/

Technicaly not a weekend ride as we did it last thursday...
On holliday in Fuerteventura we (wife and I) rented some crap mountainbikes to ride along the coast and back. Rode frome Corralejo to El Cotillo along the 'Northshore' on bumpy double track with a beautifull view of the ocean and the coastline. From El Cotillo we rode to Lajares on okish cyclelanes and the rode along the highway back to Corralejo. Drivers gave cyclists a wide berth and were very considered when passing. No room meant waiting, no tooting or other agressive outbursts. Get passed closer in Den Haag on a daily basis. Would ride there again (weather helped, 28 C and a nice breeze). I would rent better bikes next time though, 46km on a slightly to small bike with a badly adjusted saddle was not the smartest move.

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^ Looks fun!

And as someone who rides ill-fitting mountain bikes on bumpy roads as a living, I can empathise.

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I'm going to Lanzarote in Jan, did you see much in the way of decent road bike hire? Can't decide to travel with or hire